The fear of a long and difficult crisis still dominates the world markets today: the European lists file the session in the red, while Wall Street goes down and risks closing down for the third consecutive day. However, the banks are rebounding.
Piazza Affari loses 1,84% e drops to 16.602 basis points, far from the lows of the day which exceeded -3%. Partially offsetting the sales are Azimut +0,91%, Saipem +0,77% and Diasorin, +2,61%. which reaches a new all-time high of 177 euros per share.
Chilling weather in Frankfurt -1,99% and London -2,75%. Little better Paris -1,65% and Madrid -1,3%. What makes the stock markets tremble is the fear that the pandemic will continue to cause health and economic damage and that the end of this drift is still far away. I say so new outbreaks emerged in South Korea and in China, but also the estimates and forecasts of central banks. Today the ECB, in its Bulletin, writes that the contraction of GDP in the euro area in 2020 will be between 5 and 12%.
La end of the lockdown it will help get the economy back on track, but "with the gradual removal of the containment measures, there will be a recovery whose speed and extent, however, remain highly uncertain". For this Frankfurt reiterates that the purchases of the Pepp program will continue until the end of the Covid-19 emergency and that the Governing Council is "absolutely prepared to increase the size of the Pepp and to adjust its composition, to the extent necessary and as long as the circumstances so they will require".
Yesterday Fed number one Jerome Powell warned that the scenario does not offer certainties and the timing of the relaunch could prove to be longer than expected. Meanwhile, unemployment in the US worsens: claims for unemployment benefits last week rose by another 2,98 million units (against expectations for 2,7 million), bringing the total to over 36 million since the beginning of the emergency . Meanwhile, the tone between Beijing and Washington is raised and an escalation could jeopardize past and future steps to remove tariffs. Today, Trump said he did not want to talk to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and that he was very disappointed in China. Instead, he welcomed a strong dollar: “right now it's a very good thing”.
On the foreign exchange market, the greenback continues to maintain its appeal as a safe haven currency. The euro is declining slightly and the cross is below 1,08. Raw materials, on the other hand, lengthen the pace. Oil is up, supported by the fact that the International Energy Agency is less pessimistic about the trend in demand for crude oil. The WTI gains 3,28% and rises to 26,12 dollars a barrel; Brent +3,4%, 30,18 dollars a barrel.
Gold is increasingly valued and is currently up 1,45% to $1741,20 an ounce. The rise in crude oil limits damage to oil stocks. Saipme also celebrates new contracts for the Nigeria LNG Train 7 project, with a total value of over 4 billion dollars. Saipem's share is equal to 2,7 billion.
To lead the main list it is still Diasorin, which further updates the its all-time high, after yesterday's leap. The shares of the diagnostics company are still rallying after the quarterly and the green light from the Canadian authorities for the sale of the serological test, a decision that follows the approval from the US Food and Drug Administration by a few days.
The declines are important for industrial stocks: Cnh -5,64%: Leonardo -4,04%: Fiat -2,81%. Exor, -4,58%, still pays the price for the fact that the French Covea withdrew from the purchase of Partner Re, an operation worth 9 billion dollars. The Agnelli safe also suffers from Fiat's decision to do not distribute the dividend. Peugeot did the same yesterday. However, the two companies confirmed that the preparatory activities for the equal merger are progressing "positively".
The utilities are bad, starting from Hera -3,36%. Banks limit losses. Unicredit is the worst and 1,81%. falling to 6,284 euros per share, after reaching an all-time low of 6,012 euros during the session.
On the secondary the spread rises moderately, after the green light to the revival decree on the side of the government. The yield differential between 10-year BTPs and Bunds of the same duration is 234 points (+1,18%), the rate of the Italian benchmark is stable at 1,8%. Francois Villeroy de Galhau, a member of the ECB and governor of the central bank of France, guarantees that the European Central Bank will not allow volatile market conditions to push bond yields out of control.
